After the Storm
by elwenka
Summary: Shepard wakes up in the hospital after activating the Crucible and is relieved to see her favorite turian by her side. However, she learns soon that her memories may be not exactly real... Oneshot - for now, but I consider writing another chapter.Shakarian, rated T for language.


_Ok, I hope, that I got rid of all serious errors here. I'm bit anxious about posting it here, because it's my first story and, what's even more important - English isn't my first language. Punmaster Extraordinare has proofread it to some extent, but she hasn't seen updated version - so don't blame her for my mistakes :) I would really love to hear anything about the story - especially language. I really want to improve, and that's impossible without any feedback. _

_I hope, you'll enjoy :)_

Shepard woke up to the sanitary stench of hospital. At first she flinched a little – she really didn't like hospitals – but then she decided that this time it was probably a good sign. It was hard to imagine anything like that if Reapers had succeeded.

Suddenly strong chemicals smelled like victory.

She opened eyes, blinking nervously when sharp light blinded her. Involuntarily, she recollected the last time when she woke up like this – the next thing she remembered was Miranda's voice, urging her to get up and fight, only to learn that she was just resurrected by Cerberus.

Not this time, though. The first thing she saw when her eyes grew accustomed to light, was familiar shape of a turian fringe.

"Hey Vakarian," she said, slightly surprised at her own voice. Never before had it sounded so...wheezy. Like she hadn't used it in quite a long time.

Garrus suddenly snapped out of his nap, and Shepard felt guilty. She hadn't noticed, he was sleeping, she just assumed that he was looking at the floor. She should have known better.

"Shepard." His voice was clearly tired, but he widened his mandibles in turian version of a weak smile.

"You should get some rest, Vakarian," she stated, watching her boyfriend with worry.

"You must be kiddin' me." He answered, with echo of the same bitterness, that she heard when she made him get back on the Normandy. "I'm not the one, who came back from the dead... again."

Elleen Shepard blinked.

"Again?" she asked flatly. This time Garrus let out something that would have been amused hiss if it didn't sound so painful, before he seated himself at the edge of her bed.

"Not _quite_ so literally this time. "

He slowly stroked her cheek with a taloned hand and explained haltingly. "They found you under a huge pile of rubble, close to place where you fell after Harbinger's beam. You were in such bad shape, that Chakwas decided, that it's safer not to tell me..." he chuckled. "But I found out anyway. Truth to be told, it was great relief... because I _knew _you were tougher than one, silly Reaper beam."

She smiled weakly. "You told me to come back alive," she said as if it was obvious. "I couldn't do anything less."

"I though exactly so." His mandibles widened a bit, as he took her hand and squeezed it with power. "Hell, you're Shepard. You succeed, that's what you do. "

If anyone else told her so, she would feel overwhelmed, weary of unending expectations. But in Garrus' words she heard only strong faith and trust. And reassurance.

"How do you do it? You're telling me things that I would find devastating coming from anyone else's mouth. And still... They sound soothing."

Garrus shrugged.

"Maybe because you know, that I always have your six?" he mused, but then his expression hardened. "Don't you ever dare send me away like that again. Next time I will disobey, and screw all the consequences."

Shepard tried to rise on her elbows, but she was still too weak. "You were hit, Vakarian. Damn, you're still wounded. I couldn't do anything if I was worrying about you. I needed you somewhere safe," she snapped at him. Garrus didn't seem convinced.

"I thought you were dead," he replied, with no less anger. "How do you think – how many times _more _I could stand _that?__"_

"_I'm_ sorry, Garrus," she said, reaching for his mandible. She stroked it gently, hoping, that her obvious penitence would lessen his anger. When it didn't help, she tried to joke. "I'm hard to kill. You should know that."

He relaxed a bit. He remembered their meeting on Menae, she thought.

"I just took a rocket in the face, Shepard," he said, with a faint smile. "You took a fucking Reaper beam."

"I was pretty sure, you've just said, you _knew_ I was tougher than that."

"That doesn't mean, in any way, that I am happy to see you like that," he replied, still a bit angry.

"And what would you do against it?" she snapped again, but lightened up almost instantly. "You were the one, who told me, that turians don't know how to duck."

He stared at her for a while, and she suddenly felt anxious. Did she push too hard? But then she relaxed, seeing his mandibles move in a gesture, she had learned to read as resignation.

"All right, Shepard. You won this time," he said, smiling again. "But only because you are badly injured. I will kick it out your fleshy ass, as soon as you will be in any shape to spar."

"What? You told me so." Despite her innocent looks, she was obviously teasing him. Joke about ducking seemed to be good idea before the battle, but now the turian was sure, that he gave her a new heat sink to her infinite stock of jibes. In spite of that, Vakarian just took her hand and nuzzled gently. He was just too relieved to have her back to pick up the quarrel.

"Just don't do it again, Elleen," he asked. "If you weren't found... Well, you have seen, what happens, when you're not around. I'm much better, when I don't feel suicidal. Being Archangel didn't serve me well."

She sighed. She hadn't seen it coming... But she should have.

"All right. I'll see, what I can do," she promised. "But I don't want to lose you either."

Garrus didn't seem satisfied, but he stopped pushing. He knew when to stop.

"How is your wound?" Shepard asked after a moment of silence.

"Nothing serious." He smiled. "A few plates baked a bit, a few broken. I had to make Chakwas exaggerate it a bit to get here, otherwise, I would be treated on the Normandy, and we wouldn't see each other so soon." He chuckled.

"As your CO I'm not sure, if I approve," she started, feigning a serious look. Garrus looked at her, startled a bit. "But as your girlfriend, I must say, I couldn't think of better idea." She smiled.

"Do you think... you could manage... hugging me?" she asked sheepishly, when he relaxed. The turian looked at her, and she could swear, he looked a bit scared.

"Hugging you?" he repeated, with uncertainty in his voice. "Shepard, it's not me, who's had every single bone in his body crushed. "

"_Now _you're exaggerating," she laughed, only to discover, that maybe he wasn't. Especially, when speaking of her ribs. "Damn... I need it, Vakarian." She hissed through her teeth. "I don't care, if it's painful, I just need your bony ass here. We won this fucking war, and I think, I deserve a hug at least."

"You deserve much more than that, Shepard," he answered, in the sweet, soft, caring way, she knew was reserved only for her. "But I'm still worried about your condition..."

"Shut the fuck up, Vakarian, and get over here," she said, but despite the harsh words, her voice was almost as purring as his. She was happy to be alive, happy, that they succeeded, and above all, happy to have Garrus by her side.

"I never dared to imagine, that this whole mess could end so good," she said quietly, when he finally lay beside her, wrapping his arms around her. "I did, what I could to get off this damned Crucible alive... But I didn't dare to hope for it. When this cursed thing blew up, I really thought that it was the end."

Garrus shifted uncomfortably and looked at her with serious concern written all over his face.

"What do you mean by 'blew up', Shepard?" he asked, and something in his voice alarmed the Commander. "This damned thing was never finished. Nobody got to the Citadel, no one managed to get its arms open. It's still floating over our heads, with those damned machines fighting like crazy around it. Anderson took over the Normandy for now, and they are trying to figure out, how to get rid of this problem. For some reason, they stopped attacking us, and Earth is safe for now... "

"Anderson's dead," she interrupted, with a slight panic in her voice. "Anderson's fucking dead, I saw him dying in Citadel. We got up there, killed the Illusive Man, but he got shot... And I _have_ activated the Crucible! I _have_ spoken with the Catalyst! And then I blew this damned thing up."

"Spirits..." he hissed, obviously shocked. "Shepard, Elleen..." the next word didn't translate, but Shepard could tell from his soft tone, that it must've been some highly affectionate term. "I don't know, what happened to you, but Anderson is alive and kicking. He was knocked out by Harbinger's blast, but he was fortunate enough to fall under cover. He woke up by himself, not much later, and tried to pursue mission, but the transporter beam was already off. The Reapers must have seen what we were trying to do. He is scratched up, he's got a broken arm, but nothing that could keep him away from his duty."

Shepard listened in silence.

"And the Reapers?" she asked after a while, when it became clear, that Garrus wasn't sure what he should say next.

"We're not sure. As I told you, they started to act weirdly after that... Like their friend or foe systems were broken. They stopped harvesting people, and started going after big machines instead... But they are still here, and it isn't safe up there. We had to evacuate all bigger ships, because they seem to choose targets by their size." He caught her horrified expression, and smiled. "But they are uncoordinated, and not even nearly as destructive as they were. My guess is that Leviathan found some new way to influence them... But no one has the quads to go to them and check if I'm right." He smirked, slowly stroking her hair. "We could as well say, we won this war, Shepard. We don't fight sentient, murderous synthetics right now. We're getting rid of Leviathan's broken toys. You could still get burned by it, but now it would be an accident, not a freaking harvest."

Shepard looked at him with a hard to read expression. Garrus wasn't sure, if he was right telling her, what really happened. Maybe he should have waited, until she was stronger?

"What about EDI?" asked Shepard, sounding very nervous. The turian looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"What about her?" he said, obviously surprised. "She's perfectly fine."

The Commander smiled again.

"That's good." Maybe this wouldn't be as bad, as she thought. "I was just worried."

The turian knew there was something wrong. It wasn't anything odd, that Shepard was worried about her crew, but usually she wouldn't ask about the AI in the first place.

"Would you mind telling me, what's on your mind?" he asked, usual flippant tone gone from his voice. Shepard rarely had seen him so serious.

"Maybe not now..." she answered, with a trace of plea in her voice. "I don't want to relive it right now."

Garrus said nothing, instead hugging her a bit tighter. She couldn't stop a low cry, as he pressed one of her broken ribs too much.

"Sorry," said the turian, obviously ashamed.

"That's all right." She tried to smile. "Just don't do it again... "

"Officer Vakarian, I believe you have your own bed," said a sharp female voice behind them. Shepard couldn't turn around to see, who was speaking, but Garrus looked startled and annoyed at the same time. She couldn't stop herself from noticing, that on a turian's face it made for a funny picture.

"I believe I do, Doctor," answered the turian, slowly raising himself from Shepard's bed. His expression told her, that it must have been painful.

"This kind of activities aren't best for your health either, Officer," said woman with a frown. "You should be resting as well." She came closer, finally entering the Commander's sight. She was human, probably an Alliance doctor, as Shepard could tell from her stained uniform. Blonde, her features resembled a much younger Doctor Chakwas. "I probably shouldn't have agreed to you both staying in the same room... "

"Then I would have much further to get to my own bed," answered Vakarian, with his usual self-satisfied smirk. The Doctor just scowled at him.

"All right, Commander." The Doctor turned her attention to Shepard. "How do you feel? We will have to run some tests, now that you're awake..."

Shepard just sighed. As much as she hated all kinds of tests, she had no idea how she would escape this time.


End file.
